I am currently enrolled in a local community college near Charlotte, NC. I work full time M-F 7-3 as a Quality Lab Technician. I just finished my first semester with 13 credit hours and a 3.54 GPA. Overall, my long-term goal is to obtain a business/economics degree (whether it be an MBA or an BA I don’t know) from an Ivy League. I completely goofed off in high school and graduated with a 3.1 GPA, and never took the ACT or SAT. I realize that at this point my chances of receiving acceptance from any Ivy League undergrad are slim to none. However, looking forward what should I do in the near future to transfer to an excellent school? If it means that I have to go to a good public school and then try to get accepted into an Ivy MBA program, then that’s what I’ll do.
Well, certainly transferring to a good 4-year university/college should be your next step. Whether you will be admitted to an Ivy MBA program is another matter. Keep in mind, some of the top ones require post-grad work experience, so an immediate path to an Ivy/Ivy-caliber MBA after your Bachelor’s may not be possible. Still, getting a degree from a good 4-year school, along with some interships, etc., along the way, will open many doors for you, and that is the direction you should be aiming for at this point in your education. Good luck!
UVA or UNC-CH would be solid choices. Also, as @katliamom pointed out, some of the highest prestige MBA programs are outside of the Ivy league.
Before you leave community college and quit your job, see if you can arrange to work at your current company over summer breaks, maybe interning in some business-related departments.
^^^ Why are you fixated on UVA when you have a truly stellar undergraduate business school at UNC-CH? Do you realize how lucky you are and how many out of state students would kill to go there, paying in-state tuition?
Agreed with Joblue, OP: UNC is one of the top public universities in the country, one of the so-called public Ivies (along with Virginia, Michigan, Berkeley, UCLA, etc.) Go there. Excel. It’s a tremendous opportunity at in-state prices.
Awesome. Thank you so much for the help guys, I really appreciate it. I have been seriously considering Chapel Hill but for some reason I was under the impression that UVA was superior.